Downtown Olathe
Downtown Olathe '''is a former city located between the Endless Wastes and the Autumn region valley. The ruins of the city are host to the Game being played by the Central Powers. As Alex Churchland and Joel Miller enter Downtown, they encounter the Infinity Franchise for the first time, with those within the ruined city succumbing to the influence of the Infinity Jersey or being slaughtered. Pre-flash Before the Flash, Downtown Olathe was an extremely large metropolis, home to numerous skyscrapers and the Downtown Olathe Public School, whose meat lockers were poised to become the world's largest meat refrigeration units in the world. At one point in the years following the initial release of the Kung Company's Infinity Jersey, numerous crates full of the failed sportswear product were buried in and around Downtown Olathe, with several of the crates containing the Jersey being exhumed from places like the Dried Sangria Lake. Thresholds Over the course of the game, certain aspects of Downtown Olathe and its denizens may change depending on player actions -- these actions range from killing a specific person, to killing a specific amount of people, or even passing a specific spot. The triggers for these changes are known as '''Thresholds, and Downtown Olathe contains several; such changes include the Infinitization of characters that formerly were docile, the deaths of certain background characters, and subtle changes in the map's scenery and parallax. Sublocations Scarlet Valley The Scarlet Valley '''is the first area explored in Downtown Olathe. The player emerges from the Endless Wastes to the red, rocky outcrops of Downtown's geopgraphy; above the entryway into the Scarlet Valley is a ruined road sign labeled "DOWNTOWN OLATHE" and adjacent to it in an inaccessible spot is a poster of a Girl. Deeper into the valley, the silhouettes of members of the Infinity Franchise are seen frantically massacring each other. In the background, immense stretches of ruined city are visible for miles. Three men in matching rag uniforms are present towards the east of the Scarlet Valley, before the other side of the Valley begins to rise -- these men, named Rusty Tamers, Kai Mok, and Miroslav Smirnoff, are members of the Marauders, and the reason for their presence is their search for the Pink Pill that was the object of their organization's worship. = '''Threshold Changes = The Scarlet Valley's contents change after the Basketball Threshold is triggered by killing Vinny Ramón and Lin Rhodes in House Crimson. Rusty Tamers, Kai Mok, and Miroslav Smirnoff will vanish from the area; bloodstains where Miroslav once sat imply that he was killed but Rusty Tamers and Kai Mok managed to escape unscathed. Zill Rachmanov will occupy the spot Kai Mok once stood, sitting at the valley's edge gazing into the crowd of Jerseyheads. House Crimson House Crimson '''is the second area of Downtown Olathe and is accessed by traveling up the east side of the Scarlet Valley. Multiple characters are seen in places leading up to the topmost plateau of House Crimson where the Downtown Olathe Public School once stood; these characters are gangsters participating in The Game, and will not attack the player. Kim Soltoon and Doyle Muscare are the first two gangsters encountered, seated around a bonfire. The sigil of Tic-Tonic's gang is visible, depicting an orange spiral inscribed within a pink circle directly above Kim Soltoon. Next to Kim Soltoon and Doyle Muscare is a pile of corpses, all wearing the Infinity Jersey; Puer Baker is standing near the pile, and asserts that more members of the Franchise have to be killed. Near Puer Baker is William Double J. Palmer and Raun Rawo, with a gold diamond between the letters "G D" -- the emblem of John Johnson's gang. Parked in the garage of the local Chop Shop is Tingles the Clown along with Spence Mack attempting to repair a broken down ZAZ Zaporozhetz, seeking to flee Downtown before the situation gets worse. Further along the ascending path is the lonely Derb Wesley Jr. with nobody else around. Some distance further away immediately before what remains of the School is Aron Richter adjacent to a payphone -- the first live Jerseyhead that is encountered, as well as the first Jerseyhead who will not fight the player. If the player interacts with the payphone, they will discover that is has been smashed and no longer continues to function. To the immediate right of the foundation of the School is the Basketball Court where Vinny Ramón and Lin Rhodes are encountered and fought, with the duo playing a ball game while Chip Strung struggles to free himself from a vandalized basketball hoop, having been forcibly inserted into the hoop by Vinny and Lin. Killing Vinny and Lin is required to progress through the game and in doing so, Chip Strung will be freed from his hoop and inform Alex and Joel to continue moving east if they want to go to The City. To the right of the Basketball Court, the player can use a small passage to enter the Downtown Underground. = '''Threshold Changes = The contents of House Crimson are changed significantly based on which Thresholds the player may have triggered. After triggering the Cigarette Threshold by looting a pack of Cigarettes near where Twisty is encountered a second time in the Blood Flat area, the player can revisit the pile of dead Jerseyheads to find that Puer Baker has been killed; additionally Doyle Muscare will have defected to the Infinity Franchise killing both Kim Soltoon and Chip Strung in the process, and after looting their bodies for Chip's shovel and Kim's Peasant's Hat, he can be found in the Basketball Court. Rusty Tamer's corpse can be found near the Downtown Olathe Public School sign as well. After the player travels through a second tunnel in Bric Peak behind the location of Anaconda Virtue's third encounter, the Salt Threshold will be triggered -- in doing so, Tingles the Clown and Spence Mack will defect to the Franchise and be absent from the Chop Shop garage, along with their car; Derb Wesley Jr. will also defect and vanish from the area. Additionally, Luca Bariga will be found roaming the cliffs around House Crimson above the Chop Shop. The final Threshold that affects the contents of House Crimson is the Burgundy Threshold '''triggered by participating in The Feast. William Double J. Palmer will defect to the Franchise and vanish from the area; his fellow gang member Raun Rawo will also become absent, with his corpse present outside the Gambling Hall. Chop Shop A '''Chop Shop '''can be entered between the Gold Diamond outpost and a ruined building in House Crimson. Formerly belonging to Arnold Shpitz, the Chop Shop is now the temporary residency of Tibby Dobs and Bepe Stormer who are embroiled in an argument over who's the better Game warlord -- John Johnson or Fringe Boy. Alex Churchland will deride both sides for their pointless argument; this event may have directly led to the infinitization of Tibby Dobs, whose former fervor for the Game was dashed by Alex's reality check. A small secret stash is hidden behind the sign of the Chop Shop. = '''Threshold Changes = After the Salt Threshold '''is triggered, Tibby Dobs will defect to the Franchise and no longer be in the Chop Shop. The opponent during his debate, Bepe Stormer, will be found dead in the Chop Shop. Downtown Olathe Public School The '''Downtown Olathe Public School '''was a large school for children living in the surrounding area. Construction of the School began in 1984, and the building included a massive refrigerated meat locker which was slated to be the largest in the world by the year 2000, with postcards being made to commemorate both the future world record as well as the school's 16 year anniversary. However, it is not known if the school finished construction in time to actually enroll any students. Additionally, a Wallyburger fast food restaurant was in close proximity of the School. In-game, the School lacks any identifiable structure aside from its basement, with all floors being twisted off by the Tall Machine a long time ago as suggested by chalk scrawls from the Conspiracist. The basement remains and can be explored by the player; two flights of stairs lead into the basement depths where a corridor is found -- the doors of these corridors each lead into a Fenced Chamber, a small Depositry room, and a flight of stairs to the Abattoir. '''Fenced Chamber The Fenced Chamber '''is a small room divided in half by a chain-link fence -- the left side of the room where the player enters is devoid of any content, but the right side of the room features numerous corpses including that of the Yellow Tie Man; more prominently is the earliest sighting of Arnold Shpitz, who is found assailing Lardo the Mutant. A cut-scene occurs in this area if Alex approaches the chain-link fence where Arnold delivers a series of killing blows to Lardo before acknowledging Alex's existence and leaving through a door on the right half of the room. '''Depositry The Depositry '''is a small room containing three filing cabinets; the last cabinet can be moved to reveal a secret tunnel which leads to a flight of stairs that lead to a hidden chamber where Kitty Babe is chained to the walls. '''Abattoir The Abattoir (lit. "slaughterhouse") is a series of rooms including the pre-chamber, the Abattoir itself, and the Hungry Gullet. The pre-chamber is a corridor that contains a door to a room containing three boxes of Infinity Jerseys, a set of doubledoors to the main Abattoir, and several piles of raw meat. The Abattoir, lying behind the locked doors in the prechamber, contains three meat grinders towards the ceiling steadily grinding out ground meat into holes in the ground marked by tubical metal protusions; Human Fat can be found adjacent to one such protusion, and another can be traveled through into the Hungry Gullet. Hungry Gullet The Hungry Gullet is a room adjacent to a corridor containing several more piles of meat (one such pile loaded in a cart), a doorway that leads to the Generator Room which in turn leads to the right half of the Fenced Chamber. Mystery Jerky is located on the leftmost part of the Hungry Gullet. A tunnel to the surface is at the far right, but is guarded by Clyde Cyclone who must be killed if this tunnel is to be used. Downtown Underground The Downtown Underground '''is an area consisting of the remnants of the Downtown Olathe metro system, the trains having since disappeared. Anaconda Virtue is encountered for the first time in this area, before proceeding off somewhere into the Red Road. The area itself serves as a rudimentary fast travel system, connecting House Crimson, the Red Road, and the Rose Road. To prevent the player from simply skipping the majority of Downtown, the gates to each of the aforementioned areas must be opened from the outside in order to utilize them. = ''Threshold Changes'' = Upon activating the '''Burgundy Threshold, William Double J. Palmer and his 'manager' Maurice Falcon will be lurking the eastern side of the metro. Red Road The Red Road is the longest area in Downtown Olathe and consists of a fractured road that passes above the Dried Sangria Lake -- players who are not careful about their footing will plummet to the salty floor of the Lake, and as such, should exercise caution when navigating the many precarious ledges of the Red Road. Upon entering the area, Douglass Fiat can be found bashing a corpse with a brick atop the exterior of the Cave of Infinite Testament. Three cave entrances to three separate caves (including the aforementioned Cave of Infinite Testament) are present in the vicinity of Douglass Fiat's habitat, as well as a rope descending to the bottom of the Dried Sangria Lake. A small plateau to the east of the cave entrances is home to Rufio Binladen, who assigns the player an optional side- quest to recover his stolen skateboard. Close to Rufio towards the right is a small rocky peak with an Infinity Jersey flag planted on top of it -- this peak has a tunnel through the side of it that ultimately leads to the Starry Burrow and Zein Ka's Outpost. To the immediate right of the crude Infinity flag is the cafeteria of Lester Bean, one of the few men in the city ruins who remain both sane and alive for the duration of Alex and Joel's stay in Downtown. The landscape of the Red Road remains the same throughout with jarring changes in the elevation occurring frequently, often harboring passageways to different areas of Downtown. Towards the end of the Red Road, however, are the longest stretches of actual road in the zone. A dilapidated billboard can be seen at the far right of the Red Road, with older advertisements having been peeled away revealing a mostly intact and only partially vandalized advert for the Kung Company's Infinity sportswear line; the ad is dated 1998. = Threshold Changes = After the player activates the Cigarette Threshold, the formerly passive Douglass Fiat will launch themselves from the top of the Cave of Infinite Testament towards the player and initiate a fight; a cautious player can reposition themselves according to Douglass' trajectory to avoid the fight, leaving Douglass dead on impact with the ground. Additionally, Rufio Binladen will now be found dead where he once laid, having been decapitated. With the activation of the Salt Threshold, ghostly shadows termed Infinite Masses will begin to apparate onto the Red Road. There also will be numerous changes to the background, with several Game-related graffiti being defaced by the Franchise. Additionally, having fled from House Crimson, the once-absent Tingles the Clown and Spence Mack, accompanied by Onion Ploom, Spanks Star, The Unspoken One, Carrot Tail, and Geronimo Phantasmata will be found on the Red Road in the now repaired Zaporozhetz, hence dubbed the Infinimobile. Cave of Infinite Testament The Cave of Infinite Testament '''is the first cave that can be explored by the player on the Red Road, marked by a normal cave entrance partially covered by an Infinity Jersey. At first the cave is mostly desolate, save for a single mantra inscribed above a crater in the cave wall: KILL KILL KILL KILLKILL KILL KILL KILL IS THE FIRST FOLD OF INFINITY Interacting with this shrine will notify the player that a 'force beckons from beyond the wall'. If the player heeds the shrine's hints and returns after killing eight people across Downtown Olathe, a green vapor will begin to emit from the Cave of Infinite Testament and jostle the Infinity Jersey spanning across its entrance. Entering the Cave, the entirety of the area will be bathed in a green miasma and the wall crater will have opened, allowing entry into a new area. '''First Fold to Infinity The''' First Fold to Infinity', most commonly referred to as the '''Blood Lake Dimension', or more simply known as the Blood Lake, is a secret area entirely supernatural in origin 'behind' the wall crater in the Cave of Infinite Testament. The player enters the region from a large, beating heart with a metallic hole in the central chambers; blood spills freely from this passage hole, and fills the entirety of a seemingly endless dark plane ankle-deep with blood. To the right resides the only known Bureaucrat of the Infinity Franchise, Daniel Grind. In this area, the player speaks to Daniel Grind who congratulates Alex and Joel on reaching the "first fold to Infinity" proceeds to summon the Avatar of Hatred as the final step to their full initiation to the Franchise. Though the player cannot actually join the Franchise, the player can choose to either kill the Avatar or to escape the battle -- killing the Avatar nets the player a permanent +2 bonus to their Attack stat, but a -1 bonus to their Defense stat. Leaving the Avatar be will still net an Attack stat bonus, but only a +1 bonus; however, there will be no penalty to the player's Defense stat. Vermillion Way Vermillion Way '''is a long cave accessed from the second small door on the Red Road closest to House Crimson. Many Infinity Jerseys hang from the sleeves inside the cave, and Alcohol Keeth can be found inside the cave just before it begins to go down. At the lowest point in the cave, a secret stash can be found by walking through a fake wall on the left. Once returning to the cave from the Vermillion Village, Anaconda Virtue is encountered for a second time and will walk from the bottom of the cave to this secret stash's location; the player can fight Anaconda Virtue for the first time by following him to the hidden spot. Additionally, Alcohol Keeth can be fought once the player attempts to leave the Vermillion Way. Vermillion Village The '''Vermillion Village '''is a small, abandoned village on a small, thin outcrop that can only be accessed from the Vermillion Way. Of the final inhabitants of the village, Lil' Roodie Whitehead is closest to the bottom, followed by Howard Al Azif, and by Bangimantas Žudys inside the mud-brick hut at the top of the village. Two posters of the Girl can be found in the village, as well as the sigil of Tic-Tonic. None of the hovels in the village can be entered due to the small sizes of their entrances, but the hovel at the top of the village can be entered. An empty bottle can be found adjacent to this hut's entrance. '''Hovel Interior The Hovel Interior 'is the inside of the sole accessible mud-brick hut in the Vermillion Village. Bangimantas Žudys is inside. Aside from its inhabitant, there is no significant content inside. ''Parking Lot Transition The '''Parking Lot Transition '''is a transitional cave that can be entered from the Red Road through the third, largest door closest to House Crimson. The cave is barren, save for its sole resident Tuber Valentei. = '''Threshold Changes = Upon activating the Salt Threshold, Tuber Valentei will begin to eat himself in a similar fashion to an ouroboros. Parking Lots The Parking Lots '''are a series of parking lots accessed both from its transition cave as well as from the Salty Tunnel. Wabar Borgolio is found dying near the entrances to the Parking Lots, identifying the nearby Chriss Bellucci as his murderer. Chriss is found standing on top of a ruined car, and will assail the player upon approach. After defeating Chriss, the player can find the Skateboard behind the car. Starry Burrow The '''Starry Burrow '''is a small cave leading to Zein Ka's Outpost that transitions from the red coloration of the Downtown soil to a more purple color. The namesake stars are found painted on the walls of a secret stash spot, accessed by traveling left through fake walls at the bottommost part of the cave. '''Zein Ka's Outpost Zein Ka's Outpost '''is a chamber accessed from the Starry Burrow which once served as a hideout for members of Zein Ka's gang. The resident members have been killed, save for The Kent located to the right of the cave. = '''Threshold Changes = The Kent will disappear from the cave upon the activation of the Salt Threshold. Lester's Cafeteria Lester's Cafeteria '''is an establishment ran by Lester Bean, one of the only vendors in the game that sells food items. The actual building is small, with a kitchen and a small seating area featuring one table adjacent to a window being the only contents; posted of the front of the kitchen are a triad of wanted posters, showing that Lester has put out bounties on Jessie Mack, Anaconda Virtue, and Stefan Kindchild for 'mooching'. Sin Spiral Cave The '''Sin Spiral Cave '''is a circular cave that leads to the Blood Flat, whose entrance is in the center of the actual spiral. = '''Threshold Changes = Upon triggering the Cigarette Threshold '''by taking the Cigarettes from the Blood Flat, a hideout will reveal itself between the cave's entrance and the entrance to the Blood Flat; Wilbur Sin is awaiting in ambush for the player, and the player will be required to fight Wilbur Sin if they want to progress. Both walls of the hideout are fake, and the player can keep walking left from the Blood Flat entrance to the exit. Blood Flat The '''Blood Flat '''is a plateau accessed from the center of the Sin Spiral Cave, and is home to the Joy mutant Twisty. The player can walk past Twisty, who paces back and forth as if having forgotten what it was doing, and retrireve a pack of Cigarettes -- doing so will ''trigger the Cigarette Threshold''. Dried Sangria Lake The '''Dried Sangria Lake '''is the name of the salt pit that stands where the Sangria Lake once was. Running parallel with the Red Road below the cliffs, numerous piles of Man Made Salts dating back to the Peak Potassium Crisis can be found en masse; at the very bottom of the salt pit's curved geography, a single unearthed crate of Infinity Jerseys is present. On the far left, Salt Crab can be found pacing back and forth, eventually hinting at the location of the Salty Bathrobe once spoken to enough; directly above Salt Crab is a tunnel that leads to Bric Peak, which can be accessed after a trek from the opposite side of the valley. Anaconda Virtue can be encountered a third time at the center of the lake's curved landscape as well; another Jerseyhead, Ham Radar, is at the far right, dying from a mortal wound. Close to him, towards the right, is a ruined billboard advertising what once was the Sangria Lake, as well as a corpse of a Marauder. '''Threshold Changes If he has not already been killed, Ham Radar will die following the activation of the Salt Threshold. Right Salt Cliff The Right Salt Cliff 'is a secret area at the far right of the Dried Sangria Lake containing the Salty Bathrobe equipment for Joel. The area can be accessed from the Red Road by falling from a specific point below the next road after Lester's Cafeteria; there will be a series of small cliffs below the road to the right of a set of rocky outcrops with pipes sticking out, but before the Infinity Jersey billboard. One such cliff has a small rope -- walking off the right side of this rope cliff will cause the player to drop to a previously inaccessible part of the Dried Sangria Lake, and by walking to the right, the player transitions to the Right Salt Cliff. ''Salty Tunnel The '''Salty Tunnel '''is a small transition cave that leads to Bric Peak located in the Dried Sangria Lake. Though the entrance to the Salty Tunnel can be seen directly above Salt Crab near where the player can first enter the Dried Sangria Lake, the player must traverse through the entirety of the Red Road and access the Dried Sangria Lake from the right side in order to travel to the cave's entrance. Bric Peak '''Bric Peak '''is an area accessed via the Salty Tunnel where the player can find Anaconda Virtue for the fourth time. The area itself is the peak of a small mountain overlooking the ruins of Downtown Olathe; numerous burning corpses are littered around the area, having been victims to Anaconda Virtue's crude 'pyrokinesis'. After defeating Anaconda Virtue, the player can proceed to the left through the entrance to the Infratunnel. Though there are no changes made to the contents of Bric Peak as a result of triggering a Threshold, ''entering the Infratunnel will trigger the Salt Threshold''. Infratunnel The '''Infratunnel '''is a very small transitional cave that serves only as a quick method of traveling back to the Red Road from Bric Peak. The exit of the Infratunnel leads to the Parking Lots where Chriss Bellucci is encountered, specifically to a normally inaccessible area above the regular entrance; there is a parcel of loot that can be taken if the Parking Lots are entered this way. Cherry Village The '''Cherry Village '''is a zone in Downtown Olathe where the Mack Clan is headquartered. Mostly flat and horizontal aside from a handful of changes in altitude, vast fields of wheat are seen in the backdrop sparsely illuminated by a low sun (whose presence reveals that what could have been interpreted as a night sky over Downtown is actually a thick layer of clouds or fog), but the main attraction of the area are the mud-brick huts that comprise the actual village. Similar in material to the Vermillion Village but more complicated in design, the Cherry Village homes have been abandoned as their original inhabitants have been killed by the Franchise, or are now part of it. However, lone survivor Tay Mack can be found in one of the hovel's basement along with Derek Smith. Ruined wooden fences exist at the far east side of the Village, and a large cave entrance to the Burgundy Ruin is present just below the actual Village. Jessie Mack, Alejandro Babbage, and Senyor Keister are present in the center of the Cherry Village, and approaching them leads to a fight colloquially known on rare occurrences as the 'Cherry Village Rumble'. This fight is entirely optional, as the area that the trio reside can be bypassed by traveling at a lower elevation. However, skipping the fight will prevent the player from harvesting Jessie's corpse, which consequentially prevents the player from collecting his bounty from Lester. = ''Threshold Changes'' = With the activation of the '''Burgundy Threshold, Matty Mack will be on the prowl near the entrance to the Burgundy Cave. Burgundy Cave The Burgundy Cave '''is a small cave with a high ceiling that transfers the player from the red soiled area of the Cherry Village to the purple grounds of the Burgundy Ruin area. A ladder is present in the cave, having been left behind from an unknown Jerseyhead tagging a high spot on the wall; adjacent to this ladder are a series of craters in the wall. Burgundy Ruin The '''Burgundy Ruin'' is a major area which can be accessed via the Burgundy Cave in the Cherry Village area. Upon entry, Derf Pigtails will be found hosting the' '''Conference for Men of Notoriety and Note', of which Arnold Shpitz is the sole attendee; immediately, in reaction to Pigtails fawning over his infamy, Shpitz detonates his head with an uppercut and proceeds west. A large crane can be seen in the background of the area among the much denser ruins of Downtown Olathe plucking buildings from the city; an unknown party, presumably members of the Franchise, are pelting the crane with projectiles. At the far left of the area, a small stash can be found directly above one of the entrances to the Starry Burrow. The sigil of John Johnson is on the side of the peak of an outcrop to the far left. = Threshold Changes = Upon triggering the Burgundy Threshold, Russel Bats will ambush the player outside the Gambling Hall. The vehicles of the Central Powers will be wrecked, and the Tall Machine will vanish from the background. The Gambling Hall ''' The '''Downtown Olathe Gambling Hall '''is a ruined building whose first floor is fully intact and well furnished, consisting of three separate rooms; the Lobby, the Great Hall, and the Kitchen. The Lobby and the Kitchen are exactly as described, with little content of note in either room (save for food and a locked door to Kindchild's Alley being present in the Kitchen). The Great Hall features a large table, with its walls decorated with rugs and a singular painting depicting numerous mountain peaks in the middle of the sea. A television set can be found at the room's leftmost wall. If the player travels to and exits the Kitchen, the Feast event will be triggered. Be warned; in doing so, the player will trigger the '''Burgundy Threshold. = Threshold Changes = Upon triggering the Burgundy Threshold, the Central Powers will be dead and Long Leg Lennie will have vanished. Rose Road The Rose Road '''is the first half of the final major area in Downtown Olathe, being a stretch of dilapidated road interrupted at several points by jutting rock. An entrance to the Downtown Underground is present close to the leftmost entrance of the Rose Road, and Therloin Jumbo will reside, wounded, atop an outcrop, observing the player. The Meat Lovers are also present close to the entrance, doing what they do best. As the player approaches the Maroon Cliff, many dead trees begin filling the area along with extremely small natural ground vents. Maroon Cliff The final area of Downtown, the '''Maroon Cliff '''is a plateau overlooking the beginning of the Autumn region where Arnold Shpitz is fought. The area is desolate, save for Arnold Shpitz and his trail of carnage. ''Threshold Changes'' With the activation of the '''Burgundy Threshold, Kai Mok's corpse will be present right before the encounter with Arnold. Category:Locations Category:Downtown Olathe Category:Chapter 1: Mystics of Trash and Violence